The Unknowns
Chapter 7
When I get to school, I head down the hallway where I always see Anna. I see her by her locker, a newspaper clutched in her left hand. I lean against the locker next to her, snapping her attention from the inside of her locker to me. She slams her locker shut, and thrusts the newspaper into me.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, frowning.
She leans her head against her locker, glancing in every direction before answering me. “It’s almost time and we’re not ready. I don’t know what else to do to speed up the process-“
I put my hand over her mouth. Her eyes widen for a moment, and then slaps my arm away. My hand stings momentarily, but I just shake it off, giving her a dirty look. “You need to stop stressing about this, Anna. We’ve both approved remarkably and it’s only been one session. We’re meeting Trent after school and we’ll practice until dark every day. You need to let me handle some of the work, okay?”
Anna nods, rubbing her temples. She closes her eyes, and I can still see she’s tense. She eventually opens her eyes and gives me a look. I smile at her, and then walk to my class. During the rest of the school day I keep thinking, thinking too much.
I think about Anna, my parents, Trent, Pam, my powers, The Hunters, fighting, combat, life, if even I’ll make it two days out there. I don’t want to get Anna killed because I can’t fight and use my powers correctly. She’s risking her life for me to have happiness again. I can’t let her down.
When I see her outside of the school, her back is facing the building. She’s reading a newspaper, immersed in it. I’m about to playfully tackle her when she turns around, smirking at me.
We walk to my car, both of us oddly close. She runs her hand on my car, touching the parts where the paint has long peeled off and is rusty.
“I know, it’s had it.”
“This is the kind of truck I’d want,” Anna offers, smiling at me. She starts digging through her book bag, and comes up with a wallet. She flashes me her driver’s license. “I got this a couple days ago. Figured it’d be a good experience.”
I laugh and take the license from her. She isn’t smiling in the picture, and her hair is pulled back in a bun. She has one eye open, and the other is closed. I glance up at her, and I see a big smile playing on her face. “You purposely made a bad drivers license, didn’t you?”
She nods, taking the picture back from me. She throws it back in her book bag, and then she gets in the passenger’s seat. I slide in, and start the truck, its engine making a sputtering noise. We both glance at each other, both of us wondering how long this truck will last.
“Say, are we going to want a car for when we’re chasing after the Hunters?”
Anna sighs loudly. “Okay, Austin. Here’s what will happen when we chase after them. The Hunters mostly camp out in the woods, so we’ll have to sleep in the woods ninety percent of the time. The only time we’ll actually sleep in town is when they build their temporary official camp. They’ll then go find the Unknown they are looking for, and then they’ll bring them to the official official camp. That’s where we’ll find your parents.”
“Then why isn’t it easy?”
Anna sighs. “Because now that we’re almost fully gowned Unknowns, they’ll be after us. And besides, we’ve caused too much trouble already to get away with it. The Hunters will know right away when we start tailing after them. Also, it’s really hard to even find the Hunters. They move fast. Their system may even be different too.”
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The Unknowns (Book 1)
FantasyHunters. They hunted down Austin's family when he was a little boy. They took his parents away, leaving Austin with his aunt and uncle. As Austin grew older, he discovered he has powers. He promised to himself he'd find his parents and return them b...
